The Monitor's View:
“A survey released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found more than four in 10 Mexicans are willing to leave their country to live in the US. One in five would risk a dangerous, illegal border crossing. Most surprising, one in three college graduates wants to flee. Before Washington takes up immigration reform this fall, it needs to take a hard look at Mexico's disillusionment.” ---- Christian Science Monitor

Monday, June 4, 2012

Emigrant
Bank was recently identified
to receive a waiver that would allow the bank to opt out of rigorous
Dodd-Frank requirements. These of course are the same new rules and regulations
that Barack deems essential to the nation. Yet when the bank’s owner, Howard
Milstein, who is a close friend and was a bundler for President Barack Obama’s
2008 campaign, protested that the new rules would seriously crimp operations of
his bank, the Obama Administration worked with members of congress to grant him
a waiver from the new rules.

Other
financial institutions and banks have consistently
and vehemently argued that the Dodd-Frank Legislation that Obama championed
is seriously flawed and will bring a raft of unintended consequence--but they
were not friends of Barack Obama. These many other banks and institutions are
not deemed worthy of a waiver.

Sadly,
the case of Emigrant Bank is not the only example of the Obama Administration’s
mercurial application of our nation’s laws. There is the obvious case, now
being decided by the Supreme Court, of Obamacare, in which some (Nebraska´s
Cornhusker’s Kickback or Louisiana’s
Purchase) are allowed full exemption from the law’s requirements. What
those who are exempted have in common is that, once again, friends of Obama can
expect special exemptions from the rules and laws that others must follow.

There
seem to be two sets of rules. The special, privileged class of people and
businesses (Friends of Obama -FOO) can expect to be granted unique waivers,
carve outs and shameful side deals designed to escape, to dodge, and to be
exempted from much of the overreaching, poorly conceived legislation and
administrative orders that Obama’s White House pushes with utter conviction on
the rest of the nation.

On
the other hand, if an organization, such
as the Catholic Church, that is not a FOO, seeks a principled exemption to
an emerging national policy, the organization is ridiculed, dismissed, and
ignored.

This
disgraceful double standard is becoming a standard practice in the Obama
Administration.

Want
more examples? Arne Duncan has recently allowed some 10
states to have exemptions from No Child Left Behind. No doubt the Teachers’
Unions in these states, critical to Obama’s reelection, were keen to ditch the
pesky requirements for improved accountability. How much easier to call up
friend in the White House and demand an exemption from rules and regulations
that are not popular with Union members!

Consider
too, the case of government-backed loans to Solyndra. Typically, in a government-backed
loan, the government’s is the first debt that must be settled. But if one is a
FOO, the rules are different. In that kind of situation, the debt to the
federal government (read American taxpayer) is subrogated
to that of a friend of Obama—not only friend, but, one of his largest
campaign contributors. Other organizations and companies cannot expect similar
sweetheart deals--they are not FOO.

Consider
also, the case of the revolving door. The law for the Standards
of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, is very clear.
The statute mandates a two year ban on any kind of direct involvement with a
previous employer, client or co-worker. Unless, it seems, if one is a FOO. In
that case, the rules are different, which seems to have exempted
Craig Becker, former counsel for the Service employees International Union
(SEIU) who, through an Obama Administration recess appointment, served as a
member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and who moved directly from
there to his current position serving as general counsel to the AFL-CIO.

No
time off or recusal needed for FOOs.

What
does it mean for the country that the Obama Administration spends so much time
exempting certain privileged individuals and businesses from the law?

Under
Obama, will the United States devolve into a nation where laws are negotiable
and will be applied differently for different people, as long as they belong to
a special interest group that wants to opt out of the law and that also happens
to be a friend of the president?

Our
nation could once proudly boast of our national adherence to the Rule of Law.
Every American should expect and demand equal treatment under the law, and
special friends of the president should not expect or apply a different set of
laws for themselves.

But,
Barack Obama doesn’t seem to understand this basic principle that governs our
nation, and , instead, seems to think that laws are flexible and the rules
apply to others. (“Others” means anyone who is not a Friend of Obama-FOO).

Somewhere
inside the White House, it is likely that yet another czar is employed to
process the many requests for special treatment and waivers from the many new
rules and regulations that Barack Obama has inflicted on the rest of the
nation.

FOO
have learned to expect special exemptions. The unlucky others are not only
expected to follow those same rules, but to do so knowing full well that other,
more connected FOO are escaping the burdensome new costs, and can avoid the
intrusive requirements.

What
a deal.

Lurita Doan

Lurita Alexis Doan is an
African American conservative commentator who writes about issues affecting the
federal government.

*

OBAMA IS A GREAT PERFORMER. HE’S BUILT HIS LA RAZA BASE OF
ILLEGALS BY INFESTING HIS ADMINISTRATION WITH LA RAZA SUPREMACIST, AND MAKING
SURE NO BANKSTER DONOR WENT TO PRISON!

IN FACT, THE REASON WHY OBAMA WANTED BILL DALEY AS CHIEF OF
STAFF, WAS BECAUSE DALEY IS CONNECTED TO OBAMA’S BANKSTER DONORS, LIKE J.P.
MORGAN, AND LIKE OBAMA, IS AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS TO KEEP WAGES
DEPRESSED!

I WONDER IF ANY PRESIDENT IN HISTORY HAS HATED A NATION AS
MUCH AS OBAMA?

*

Obama
attacks banks while raking in Wall Street dough

The Daily
Caller – 18 hrs ago

Despite
his rhetorical attacks on Wall Street, a study by the Sunlight Foundation’s
Influence Project shows that President Barack Obama has received more money
from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20
years,
including former President George W. Bush.

In
2008, Wall Street’s largesse accounted for 20 percent of Obama’s total take,
according to Reuters.

When
asked by The Daily Caller to comment about President Obama’s credibility when
it comes to criticizing Wall Street, the White House declined to reply.

Former
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer says the distance between the
president’s rhetoric and actions makes him look hypocritical.

“It’s
almost as if President Obama won’t cross across a Wall Street picket line except
to get inside with [his] hand out, so he can raise money,” Fleischer told
TheDC, referring to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who the president has
been encouraging over the past week. “That sort of support causes him to look
hypocritical.”

Fleischer
continued by saying that President Obama and Democrats, such as New York Sen.
Charles Schumer, who has received
approximately $8.7 million
from Wall Street since 1989, should stop taking campaign donations from Wall
Street banks if they are so offended by their actions.

Being
Wall Street’s campaign cash king is hardly the image President Obama has been
trying to project in public, where he has been setting himself up as the
champion of the progressive Occupy Wall Street movement and as the avenger of
jilted Bank of America customers.

“Banks
can make money,” Obama said last week, responding to questions during an
interview with ABC News about Bank of America’s decision to levy a $5 monthly
fee on debit card users. “They can succeed, the old-fashioned way, by earning
it.”

In
fact, the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks
lobbyist spending and influence in both parties, found that President Obama has
received more money from Bank of America than any other candidate dating back
to 1991.

An
examination of the numbers shows that Obama took in $421,242 in campaign
contributions in 2008 from Bank of America’s executives, PACs and employees,
which exceeded its prior record contribution of $329,761 to President George W.
Bush in 2004.

According
to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wall Street firms also contributed more
to Obama’s 2008 campaign than they gave to Republican nominee John McCain.

“The
securities and investment industry is Obama’s second largest source of
bundlers, after lawyers, at least 56 individuals have raised at least $8.9
million for his campaign,” Massie Ritsch wrote in a Sept. 18, 2008 entry on the Center for Responsive
Politics’s OpenSecrets blog.

By
the end of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, executives and others connected with
Wall Street firms, such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, UBS AG,
JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, poured nearly $15.8 million into
his coffers.

Goldman
Sachs contributed slightly over $1
million to
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, compared with a little over $394,600 to the 2004 Bush campaign.
Citigroup gave $736,771 to Obama in 2008,
compared with $320,820 to Bush in
2004. Executives and others connected with the Swiss bank UBS AG donated $539,424 to Obama’s 2008 campaign,
compared with $416,950 to Bush in 2004. And JP Morgan Chase gave Obama’s
campaign $808,799 in 2008, but did not show up
among Bush’s top donors in 2004, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.

Obama’s
close relationship with JP Morgan Chase was highlighted earlier this year when
he tapped Bill Daley, a former top executive with the bank, to replace Rahm
Emanuel as his chief of staff.

Wall
Street’s generosity to Obama didn’t end with his 2008 campaign either. Wall
Street donors contributed $4.8
million to
underwrite Obama’s inauguration, according to a Jan. 15, 2009 Reuters report.

So
far Wall Street has raised $7.2
million in
the current electoral cycle for President Obama, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. Obama’s 2012 Wall Street bundlers include people like Jon
Corzine, former Goldman Sachs CEO and former New Jersey governor; Azita Raji, a
former investment banker for JP Morgan; and Charles Myers, an executive with
the investment bank Evercore Partners.

“When
he calls Wall Street bankers fat cats, then his base cheers, so you’ll see him
constantly trying to shift back and forth, and keep Wall Street happy at one
point and his base happy at another point,” Jim Moorehead, current crisis
adviser at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP and a former Goldman Sachs investment
banker, explained in a July interview with FoxNews.com.

The
Republican National Committee echoed Fleischer’s comments in a statement to
TheDC, similarly accusing the president of Wall Street hypocrisy.

“The
president wants his cake and eat it too,” RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski
wrote in an emailed statement. “It’s the height of hypocrisy for President
Obama to demonize Wall Street on the stump while looking the other way as they
line his campaign coffers.”

Politcal
analyst Dr. Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics
sums up Wall Street’s 2008 infatuation with Obama as having been more about
wanting to back a winner than anything else.

“Two
things have changed that. First, the economy is still rotten. Obama’s policies
just haven’t worked — or at least not so anybody can tell,” Sabato said.
“Second, Obama has to direct the public’s anger and frustration somewhere
if he’s to have a decent chance of reelection.”

“There
is a great deal of animosity still present in the general public about Wall
Street and the banks,” he continued. “The more Obama scapegoats them, the less
inclined they are to back him this time. You don’t get the votes and money of
people you insult.”

Over
the past few weeks, President Obama has at last "pivoted," in the
widely used term, from emphasizing deficit reduction to focusing on jobs and
taxation of millionaires. Spontaneous protest has done what the organized left
failed to do; it has made Wall Street the appropriate target of diffuse
economic frustrations. The labor movement has added its weight and
institutional skills to these protests, and even President Obama has had some
kind words for them.

Fox
News and the Republicans have been usefully flummoxed, since it is awfully hard
to rise to the defense of the Wall Street banks that caused the financial
collapse and to retain credibility with anyone, even the Tea Party base.

But
here comes the next phase of the financial crisis, and it will test President
Obama's leadership like nothing else. It will also make or break the faltering
credibility of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

In
recent days, it has become clear that several large banks, most notably Bank of
America, are teetering. Though the backlash against the giant bank's proposed
five-dollar-a-month charge for debit cards has gotten the headlines, this is
the least of its problems. The profits from this new charge would be chump
change measured against the bank's chasms of losses, the legacy of its
ill-advised purchases of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch in 2008.

Worried
investors have driven Bank of America stock down to the range of 5 to 6 dollars
a share. Bank of America's books are still glutted with non-performing mortgage
loans, and a grand solution to the mortgage crisis seems further away than
ever.

Meanwhile,
Citigroup and Morgan Stanley with their large holdings of Greek government
bonds are also in some jeopardy, which adds to the general crisis of
confidence. The Federal Reserve has been throwing "liquidity,"
otherwise known as nearly interest-free money, at the banks as necessary, to
keep inter-bank markets from freezing up as they nearly did in 2008.

As
recently as three weeks ago, at a "Delivering Alpha" financial
conference, Geithner assured his audience that despite
the European crisis American banks were in great shape:

Our financial system --
because of the actions we took early in the crisis -- is in a much stronger
position to deal with these new risks than it was before this crisis. Much,
much stronger position. Way ahead of the rest of the world in terms of making
sure they have a stronger financial foundation to handle any type of shock.

This
has been Geithner's strategy since the earliest days of the crisis: work with
the Federal Reserve to throw money at the big banks, resist fundamental changes
in their business model, and talk up their solvency even in the face of
contrary evidence.

Given
the proprietary data that Geithner surely sees as Treasury Secretary, he must
know that these words are wishful at best and downright deceptive at worst. If
his assurances turn out to be so much baloney, then Geithner, President Obama's
re-election chances, and the economy could all be in big trouble.

The
fact is that European banks are functioning only because the European Central
Bank in spite of its reluctance has been flooding the system with liquidity,
and at least one U.S bank -- Bank of America -- is barely solvent and heavily
reliant on the Fed.

If
events turn critical again and we face a repeat risk of the seizing up of
financial markets as in the fall of 2008, the Obama administration's rhetorical
populist turn will be of no use. The president will need to make a fateful
decision.

Worst
of all would be to let a large institution like Bank of America just fail.
Outside of the hard-core Tea Party right, nobody supports this.

The
second worst policy would be to just keep throwing money at a zombie
institution to keep up the pretense that it is solvent. We tried that policy in
2008 and 2009. It helped entrenched bankers keep their jobs and their outsized
profits, but a wounded banking system continued to be a lead weight on the rest
of the economy.

So
now President Obama, if faced with a repeat crisis of large banks, may get a
do-over.
In the spring of 2009, when the leading zombie bank was Citigroup, then chief
economic adviser Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary Geithner took the
position that they could not seize, clean out, and break up Citi because they
lacked the legal authority or the tools to do it. It's also clear from several
accounts, including my own A
Presidency in Peril
and most recently Ron Suskind's new book Confidence
Men that
Summers and Geithner did not want to do it. According to Suskind, Obama himself
wanted to break-up of Citi as his preferred option, and Geithner slow-walked
the president until the issue was moot.

But
the Dodd-Frank Act now gives the treasury secretary explicit authority to find
that a large, systemically significant financial company is "in danger of
default"; to designate the FDIC as receiver; and to seize, break up, and
reorganize failing large banks. Though there is surely contingency planning for
the collapse of a large bank, Geithner seems loathe to use his new authority.

So,
consider three possible scenarios in coming days or weeks.

First
scenario: the big banks, thanks to advances from the Federal Reserve, keep
barely afloat. Geithner's credibility survives, but the real economy continues
to be a shambles. This is not exactly auspicious, either for economically
frustrated Americans or for an incumbent president facing re-election.

Second
scenario: Investors keep fleeing Bank of America, the giant bank finds itself
frozen out of short term lending markets as Lehman Brothers was, and the bank
finally turns to the government for emergency aid. There is a new financial
crisis in the headlines, and it falls in on President Obama and his Treasury
Secretary, who was been reassuring everyone that all is well with the large
banks.

Third
scenario: President Obama decides to get other opinions besides Geithner's and
to get out ahead of the crisis. If things turn critical, he directs his
Treasury Secretary to seize the bank, as authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act.
Obama tells the citizenry that the alternative was endless bailouts or a
Lehman-style collapse (just imagine the right trying to defend either), and
that this way those who caused the crisis will be appropriately removed from
their suites and bonuses while the bank is returned to health so that the broad
economy can prosper.

Serious
consideration of this last approach would take much more of a "pivot"
on Obama's part than we have seen to date. I recall, in reading biographies of
Presidents Kennedy and Roosevelt, how both leaders sought multiple sources of
advice. Kennedy would pick up the phone and speak to a relatively junior desk
officer at the State Department to get his own information unfiltered by his
gatekeepers. Roosevelt made sure he had direct access to multiple advisers who
disagreed with each other. But Geithner has been astute at blocking access to
the president for others who have different views, and Obama has been
startlingly incurious and compliant. The man needs to get on the phone.

It
also happens that Bank of America is headquartered in Charlotte, North
Caroline, site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, and the bank is
expected to be one of the convention's top-tier corporate sponsors. Oh, my.
Moving to resolve and break up the bank under Dodd-Frank, should it prove to be
insolvent, would take uncharacteristic nerve.

In
September 2008, the financial collapse fell in on George W. Bush and won the
election for Barack Obama. A repeat collapse, if handled badly, would fall in
squarely on Obama.

Populist
rhetoric when angry people are in the streets demanding accountability for
bankers is a start, but talk is cheap. If the banking mess turns critical
again, we will see what this president has learned, and what he is made of.

Robert
Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a senior fellow at Demos. His
latest book is A Presidency in Peril.

*

OBAMA HAS TWO AGENDAS. SERVICING BANKSTER DONORS, AND PUSHING
OUR BORDERS OPEN FOR MORE ILLEGALS. HE KNOW WE WON’T BE PUNKED BY HIS
PERFORMANCES THE SECOND TIME AROUND!

*

THE BELOW FIGURES WERE PRE-FIRST TERM. OBAMA HAS SO SERVED
HISCRIMINAL BANKSTERS THEY HAVE PUMPED
EVEN MORE OF THEIR LOOTINGS INTO THIS CLOWN!

“Records
show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial
industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase
($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”

*An initial term sheet outlining a possible settlement
emerged in March, with institutions including Bank of America, Citigroup,
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo being asked to pay about $20 billion that would
go toward loan modifications and possibly counseling for homeowners.

In exchange, the attorneys general participating in the deal would
have agreed to sign broad releases preventing them from bringing further
litigation on matters relating to the improper bank practices.

*

ONE REASON WHY DALEY WAS ASKED TO JOIN OBAMA’S LA RAZA
INFESTED ADMINISTRATION IS BECAUSE HE EMBRACES OBAMA’S OPEN BORDERS AGENDA TO
KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED WITH HORDES OF ILLEGALS HOPING OURBORDERS AND JOBS.

(Bloomberg)
-- President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase
& Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level
administration post, possibly White House chief of staff, people familiar with
the matter said.

*

YOU HAVE TO BE A BANKSTER OR LA RAZA SUPREMACIST FOR OPEN
BORDERS TO WORK IN OBAMA’S CORRUPT WHITE HOUSE.

FROM CREOLE FOLKS

Obama Seeks Brother of "Chicago
Mob Boss" for Top White House Post

The
roaches and con-artist, fake journalist on cable news are all lying about
William Daley being all this and all that, this man is an open borders, down
with America, free trade globalist. MSNBC and Greta "the
Scientology" Van Susteren from Fox News are knowingly deceiving the
public about D. Issa & his letter to "business owners"=which they
made into such a BIG DAM DEAL, but no one says anything when Barrack
Hussein Obama, comes around with all of these shady bankers, hedge fund managers
and Wall St. Tycoons, which he puts in his cabinet. All of Obama's
meeting with Wall Street asking, "What can I do for you?" is never
something covered by Keith Oberman or Rachel Maddow.

(Bloomberg)
-- President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase
& Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level
administration post, possibly White House chief of staff, people familiar with
the matter said.

*

Obamanomics:
How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends,
Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses

BY TIMOTHY P
CARNEY

Editorial Reviews

Obama Is Making
You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs
up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you
wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate
socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s
corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.

Congressman
Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.”
And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics
is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the
Obama years.”

If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows
up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit
exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam.
Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger,
somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book
names the names—and it will make your blood boil.

*

Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers.

Investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:

* The
Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with drug companies spell
corporate profits and more government control
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled
bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs
presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the
well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics

If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as the federal government
swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts
deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create make-work government jobs,
this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils
down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and
those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will
make your blood boil.

*Praise for Obamanomics

“The
notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of
progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by
day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is conservative
muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is exploiting the big
business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it to entrepreneurs,
taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide to the Obama
years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author

“‘Every
time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute
observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama
administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s
populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone
who wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama

“Every
libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large
corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to
read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions
of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul

“It’s
understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But
as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more
sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing
everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual,
which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The
Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History

*

·Hardcover: 256 pages

·Publisher: Regnery Press (November 30,
2009)

·Language: English

·ISBN-10: 1596986123

·ISBN-13: 978-1596986121

*

Wall Street firms dole out record pay to executives

By Tom Eley
13 October 2010

While for millions of Americans 2010 has been a year of unemployment and
wage-cutting, executives at a handful of finance firms will be paid a record
$144 billion, according to a new survey by the Wall Street Journal.
The sum is up 4 percent from last year’s haul of $139 billion, which was also a
record.

The Journal found that executive pay for 2010 has gone up at 29 of
the top 35 surveyed banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money management
firms, and securities exchanges. The payroll increase will slightly outstrip
the growth in revenue at these firms, which increased by 3 percent from $433
billion in 2009 to $448 billion in 2010. About a third of total Wall Street
revenue is given over to employees.

While profits at the big finance houses have rebounded from the lows of
2008, when the entire financial system teetered on the brink of collapse, they
remain 20 percent below the record set in 2006, or $61.3 billion now versus $82
billion four years earlier. Yet over the same period executive pay has
increased by 23 percent.

The record payout to the same financiers responsible for setting into motion
the economic crisis shows, if any further proof were needed, that the bailout
of the financial industry—backed by both Democrats and Republicans—had as its
central aim the promotion of a tiny layer of the extremely wealthy.

The increase in executive pay also demonstrates that the Obama
administration’s appointment of “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg to oversee
compensation at federally bailed-out financial firms was merely a smokescreen
to pave the way for further self-enrichment. Or, as the Journal put
it, the spiraling Wall Street pay shows that firms “continue to base their pay
on economic and market conditions rather than the level of pressure coming from
regulators in Washington and overseas.”

Since the financial crisis of 2008, there have been only cosmetic changes to
Wall Street executive pay. Some firms have promoted payment in stock and other
incentivized forms of remuneration to lend the appearance that there exists an
identity of interests between executives and stockholders. But these changes in
no way signal a reduction in compensation, the new figures make clear.

The huge payout of $144 billion to a relative handful of financiers is
socially obscene. If the figure were ranked as national GDP—a measure of the
value of all goods and services produced in a year—the Wall Street bankers
would come in 49th, just ahead of Algeria, Hungary and Peru. If the figure were
a discretionary item on the 2010 US budget, it would come in second place after
defense spending and far ahead of housing, transportation and education. And it
is about $20 billion greater than the combined budget deficits of all 50
states.

While the executives gorge themselves, just beyond Wall Street incomes are
plummeting. According to data released by New York state’s Office of the
Comptroller, personal income fell by 3.1 percent in 2010, the first decline in
70 years, and the average paycheck fell by 5.4 percent.

*

US banks and corporations announce
huge pay packages for 2009

Wells Fargo executives double their compensation

By Andre Damon
11 March 2010

US
corporations are beginning to release figures on CEO pay for last year.
Multi-million dollar packages are the norm in a year that saw the continued
deterioration in the living conditions of the vast majority of the population.

Each of the top five
executives at Wells Fargo at least doubled their compensation last year over
2008. The five men each received over $11 million in 2009, while Wells Fargo’s
chief executive, John Stumpf, took home $21.3 million, far higher than his 2008
package of $8.8 million.

Mark
Oman, the head of consumer business for Wells Fargo, nearly quadrupled his
previous pay package to $13.5 million. Howard Atkins, the chief financial
officer, received $11.6 million. The other Wells Fargo executives who received
huge payouts were David Carroll, the head of the brokerage unit ($14.3
million), and David Hoyt, the head of wholesale banking ($13.5 million).

These
latest reports come in the wake of Barack Obama’s statement last month that he
does not “begrudge” the bonuses of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Blankfein got a $9 million bonus lat year,
while Dimon received $16 million. (Their total packages have not yet been
released).

“I’M
NOT HERE TO PUNISH MY BANKSTER DONORS THAT DESTROYED THE LIFE SAVINGS OF MOST
OF THIS NATION. I’M HERE TO SERVICE THEM FOR ANY AND ALL THEY WANT!” Barack
Obama, the Bankster President (La Raza Party).

Obama defended the bonuses on
the grounds that Blankfein and Dimon are “savvy businessmen.” This statement
gave what amounted to official carte blanche for the multi-million-dollar
bonuses paid to hundreds of other “savvy businessmen,” even as the government
oversees a massive attack on the living conditions of the vast majority of the
population.

ARIZONA IS A STATE UNDER OBAMA’S DEPT. of JUSTICE ASSAULT. ALONG WITH
THREE OTHER AMERICAN STATES, OBAMA HAS SHOVED HIS LA RAZA SUPREMACY AGENDA OF
OPEN BORDERS, SANCTUARY CITIES, DREAM ACTS, NO E-VERIFY, NO I.D. TO
INCONVENIENCE ILLEGALS VOTING!

WHILE OBAMA HAS STATIONED 2,500 TROOPS IN AUSTRALIA, HE HAS REPEATEDLY
SABOTAGED OUR BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX AND ASSURE THE MEX DRUG CARTELS THAT MEX
TRUCK DRIVERS COULD ENTER OUR BORDERS WITH THEIR HUMAN CARGO AND DRUGS,
SOMETHING WHICH BUSH PROHIBITED.

*

MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

FAIRUS.org

JUDICIALWATCH.org

ALIPAC.us

Pinal County Sheriff: Mexican drug cartels now control
parts of Arizona

CASA GRANDE, AZ - Two men shot earlier
this week could be the result of the ongoing battle between Mexican drug
cartels now spilling over deep into Arizona, officials say.

Pinal County investigators say an
area known as the smuggling corridor now stretches from Mexico's border
to metro Phoenix.

The area , once an area for family
hiking and off road vehicles has government signs warning residents of the drug
and human smugglers.

Night vision cameras have photographed military armed cartel
members delivering drugs to vehicles along Highway 8.

"We are three counties deep. How
is it that you see pictures like these, not American with semi and fully
automatic rifles. How is that okay?" asked Pinal County Sheriff Paul
Babeu.

Babeu said he no longer has control over
parts of his county.

"We are outgunned, we are out
manned and we don't have the resources here locally to fight this," he
said at a Friday news conference.

Five weeks ago Deputy Louie Puroll was
ambushed and shot as he tracked six drug smugglers.

Sheriff Babeu said the ambush mirrored
military tactics.

Even more disturbing, Babeu said the
man who called in to 911 operators for help seemed to know a lot about the
sheriff deputy's case.

"He told operators they could find
him where the deputy was shot and talked about our search helicopter. Things
that were talked about on the news," Babeu said.

When operators asked the fatally
wounded man how he knew the area, he claimed he sold cantelope near mile post
150.

Both men were found dead several hours
later.

Detectives say next to them was a
Bushmaster automatic rifle used by police officers for patrolling. It does not
appear to be stolen.

Investigators also revealed that an
autopsy showed strap marks on one of the men that likely came from hauling
heavy loads, they suspect were drugs.

One of the men, deputies say, was
voluntarily deported seven times.

Babeu said he doesn't believe the drug cartel problems will
not be solved when SB 1070 becomes a law, or with President Obama's promise of
1,200 troops spread out among four border states.

"It will fall short. What is truly
needed in 3,000 soldiers for Arizona alone," Babeu said.

*

KEEP THIS IN MIND AS YOU WITNESS OBAMA AND HIS LA RAZA
HISPANDERING ADMINISTRATION’S ENDLESS ASSAULT ON THE PEOPLE OF ARIZONA FOR MORE
“CHEAP” LABOR ILLEGALS, KNOWN TO HIM AS “UNREGISTERED VOTERS”.

Gov. Brewer: Most border-crossers are drug
'mules' for Mexican cartels

Expanding on comments made
at a candidates' debate, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said today she believes that
most illegal immigrants crossing the border are "mules" carrying
drugs for Mexican cartels.

"I believe today,
under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal
trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction
and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in," Brewer told the Associated Press.

"There's strong
information to us that they come as illegal people wanting to come to work.
Then they are accosted and they become subjects of the drug cartel," she
said.

During the June 15
Republican debate she said she believed that most illegal immigrants did not
enter the United States for work. She then associated illegal immigrants with
drug smuggling, drop houses, extortion and other criminal activity, according
to AP.

The state law she signed
making it a crime to be in Arizona illegally will take effect next month.

*

By Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Republic

On May 9, a 15-year-old girl walked into Arizona through the San Luis
port of entry, near Yuma, with 5 pounds of marijuana strapped around her belly,
Customs and Border Protection records show.

She was
busted by customs officers.

Later
that day, a 16-year-old boy tried the same thing with 2 pounds of cannabis
taped to his legs. He, too, was arrested.

The
marijuana, with a combined street value of $72,000, was confiscated.

The
juveniles — both U.S. citizens — were turned over to police, but others keep
taking their place.

In the
past two years, Homeland Security officials have witnessed a disturbing
development along the Mexican border: kid smugglers.

"It's
going up," said Michael Lowrie, a public-affairs agent for the U.S. Border Patrol. "Not a whole lot, but more than we've seen in, well, pretty
much ever."

The Border Patrol does not
keep data on juvenile drug runners caught trying to sneak into Arizona. Customs
and Border Protection records show 130 minors were caught attempting to bring
drugs through entry ports from Sonora into Arizona during fiscal
2009, an 83% increase over the previous year.

Teresa
Small, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman in San Luis, said narcotics
organizations are recruiting American teens with claims that they won't face
major punishment if caught.

"Drug-trafficking
organizations lead them to believe they will not have a substantial
sentence," Small said. Prison terms are not uncommon for teen smugglers.

The
problem escalated last year to a point where federal and local authorities
created programs to warn Yuma County students about the dangers and
consequences of drug smuggling. The federal campaign includes a presentation by
border agents.

Judge
Maria Elena Cruz said she has noticed a surge of young smugglers who are
stunned when she orders them incarcerated.

Small
said most of the youthful offenders are Americans with family members in
Mexico. She said port officers generally refer suspects to local authorities
for prosecution under Arizona law, rather than to the federal justice system.

"One
thing for sure: They will get the hardest punishment possible," Small
said.

Still,
the cases pile up.

On June
24, Customs and Border Protection reported, a 16-year-old American boy was
arrested at the San Luis port of entry with cocaine taped to his leg.

"They
think they're going to get away with it or get a slap on the wrist,"
Lowrie

*

SOMEONE SHOULD TELL THE
HISPANDERING OBAMA and his LA RAZA DEPT of JUSTICE THAT MEXICANS ARE NOT A
RACE, EXCEPT IN THEIR RACIST MINDS! LA RAZA “THE RACE” SUPREMACY MOVEMENT IS
FUNDED BY OBAMA WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS AND OPERATES OUT OF THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE.

BARACK OBAMA vs THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE 9(legals) OF ARIZONA:

1. OBAMA HAS TAKEN BORDER
GUARDS OFF THE AZ BORDER TO HELP EASE THE MEXICAN HORDES OVER, UNDER AND INTO
OUR JOBS. HE HAS DONE THIS BY SABOTAGING E-VERIFY!

2. OBAMA HAS PERMITTED MEX
TRUCK DRIVERS OVER OUR BORDERS SO THEY CAN MORE EASILY TRANSPORT DRUGS AND
HUMAN CARGO. EVEN GEORGE BUSH, ALSO AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX,
WOULD NOT DO THAT!

3. WELFARE FOR ILLEGALS IN
MEX-OCCUPIED AZ IS SOARING. NOT ONE LEGAL VOTED TO BE LOOTED BY MEXICANS.

4. NEXT TO MEXICO CITY, THE
LARGEST CENTER FOR MEXICAN KIDNAPPING IS PHOENIX. VIVA LA RAZA?

“In Mexico, a recent Zogby poll declared
that the vast majority of Mexican citizens hate Americans. [22.2] Mexico is a
country saturated with racism, yet in denial, having never endured the social
development of a Civil Rights movement like in the US--Blacks are harshly
treated while foreign Whites are often seen as the enemy. [22.3] In fact,
racism as workplace discrimination can be seen across the US anywhere the
illegal alien Latino works--the vast majority of the workforce is usually strictly
Latino, excluding Blacks, Whites, Asians, and others.”

“PHOENIX – Federal
authorities said Wednesday they plan to sue an Arizona county sheriff and his
office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Hispanics.”

PHOENIX – Federal
authorities said Wednesday they plan to sue an Arizona county sheriff and his
office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial
profiling of Hispanics.

The U.S. Justice Department has been seeking an agreement
requiring sheriff Joe Arpaio office to train officers in how to make
constitutional traffic stops, collect data on people arrested in traffic stops
and reach out to Hispanics to assure them that the department is there to also
protect them.

Arpaio has denied the racial profiling allegations and has claimed
that allowing a court monitor would mean that every policy decision would have
to be cleared through an observer and would nullify his authority.

DOJ officials told a lawyer for Arpaio on April 3 that the
lawman's refusal of a court-appointed monitor was a deal-breaker that would end
settlement negotiations and result in a federal lawsuit.

The "notice of intent to file civil action" came
Wednesday from Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez in a letter to an
Arpaio lawyer.

Perez, who heads the DOJ's civil rights division, noted that it's
been more than 100 days since the sheriff's office received the DOJ's findings
report and federal authorities haven't met with the Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office counsel since Feb. 6 to discuss the terms of a consent agreement.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Arpaio defended himself
in the face of the pending lawsuit.

"If they sue, we'll go to court. And then we'll find out the
real story," he said. "There's lots of miscommunication emanating
from Washington. They broke off communications.

"They're telling me how to run my organization. I'd like to
get this resolved, but I'm not going to give up my authority to the federal
government. It's as simple as that," Arpaio added.

The DOJ also accused Arpaio of having a culture of disregard for
basic constitutional rights.

The civil rights allegations have led some Arpaio critics to call
for his resignation, including the National Council of La Raza, a prominent
advocacy group for Latinos.

The sheriff's office also is facing criticism over more than 400
sex-crimes investigations -- including dozens of alleged child molestations --
that hadn't been investigated adequately or weren't examined at all over a
three-year period ending in 2007.

Arpaio has apologized for the botched cases, reopened 432
sex-crimes investigations and made 19 arrests.

Separate from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury has
been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since
at least December 2009. That grand jury is examining the investigative work of
the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad.

The self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America has been a
national political fixture who has built his reputation on jailing inmates in
tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as
unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can
go to confront illegal immigration.

ARIZONA IS A STATE UNDER OBAMA’S DEPT. of JUSTICE ASSAULT. ALONG WITH
THREE OTHER AMERICAN STATES, OBAMA HAS SHOVED HIS LA RAZA SUPREMACY AGENDA OF
OPEN BORDERS, SANCTUARY CITIES, DREAM ACTS, NO E-VERIFY, NO I.D. TO
INCONVENIENCE ILLEGALS VOTING!

WHILE OBAMA HAS STATIONED 2,500 TROOPS IN AUSTRALIA, HE HAS REPEATEDLY
SABOTAGED OUR BORDERS WITH NARCOMEX AND ASSURE THE MEX DRUG CARTELS THAT MEX
TRUCK DRIVERS COULD ENTER OUR BORDERS WITH THEIR HUMAN CARGO AND DRUGS,
SOMETHING WHICH BUSH PROHIBITED.

*

MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

FAIRUS.org

JUDICIALWATCH.org

ALIPAC.us

Pinal County Sheriff: Mexican drug cartels now control
parts of Arizona

CASA GRANDE, AZ - Two men shot earlier
this week could be the result of the ongoing battle between Mexican drug
cartels now spilling over deep into Arizona, officials say.

Pinal County investigators say an
area known as the smuggling corridor now stretches from Mexico's border
to metro Phoenix.

The area , once an area for family
hiking and off road vehicles has government signs warning residents of the drug
and human smugglers.

Night vision cameras have photographed military armed cartel
members delivering drugs to vehicles along Highway 8.

"We are three counties deep. How
is it that you see pictures like these, not American with semi and fully
automatic rifles. How is that okay?" asked Pinal County Sheriff Paul
Babeu.

Babeu said he no longer has control
over parts of his county.

"We are outgunned, we are out
manned and we don't have the resources here locally to fight this," he
said at a Friday news conference.

Five weeks ago Deputy Louie Puroll was
ambushed and shot as he tracked six drug smugglers.

Sheriff Babeu said the ambush mirrored
military tactics.

Even more disturbing, Babeu said the
man who called in to 911 operators for help seemed to know a lot about the
sheriff deputy's case.

"He told operators they could find
him where the deputy was shot and talked about our search helicopter. Things
that were talked about on the news," Babeu said.

When operators asked the fatally
wounded man how he knew the area, he claimed he sold cantelope near mile post
150.

Both men were found dead several hours
later.

Detectives say next to them was a
Bushmaster automatic rifle used by police officers for patrolling. It does not
appear to be stolen.

Investigators also revealed that an
autopsy showed strap marks on one of the men that likely came from hauling
heavy loads, they suspect were drugs.

One of the men, deputies say, was
voluntarily deported seven times.

Babeu said he doesn't believe the drug cartel problems will
not be solved when SB 1070 becomes a law, or with President Obama's promise of
1,200 troops spread out among four border states.

"It will fall short. What is truly
needed in 3,000 soldiers for Arizona alone," Babeu said.

*

KEEP THIS IN MIND AS YOU WITNESS OBAMA AND HIS LA RAZA
HISPANDERING ADMINISTRATION’S ENDLESS ASSAULT ON THE PEOPLE OF ARIZONA FOR MORE
“CHEAP” LABOR ILLEGALS, KNOWN TO HIM AS “UNREGISTERED VOTERS”.

Gov. Brewer: Most border-crossers are drug
'mules' for Mexican cartels

Expanding on comments made
at a candidates' debate, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said today she believes that
most illegal immigrants crossing the border are "mules" carrying
drugs for Mexican cartels.

"I believe today,
under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal
trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction
and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in," Brewer told the Associated Press.

"There's strong
information to us that they come as illegal people wanting to come to work.
Then they are accosted and they become subjects of the drug cartel," she
said.

During the June 15
Republican debate she said she believed that most illegal immigrants did not
enter the United States for work. She then associated illegal immigrants with
drug smuggling, drop houses, extortion and other criminal activity, according
to AP.

The state law she signed
making it a crime to be in Arizona illegally will take effect next month.

*

By Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Republic

On May 9, a 15-year-old girl walked into Arizona through the San Luis
port of entry, near Yuma, with 5 pounds of marijuana strapped around her belly,
Customs and Border Protection records show.

She was
busted by customs officers.

Later
that day, a 16-year-old boy tried the same thing with 2 pounds of cannabis
taped to his legs. He, too, was arrested.

The
marijuana, with a combined street value of $72,000, was confiscated.

The
juveniles — both U.S. citizens — were turned over to police, but others keep
taking their place.

In the
past two years, Homeland Security officials have witnessed a disturbing
development along the Mexican border: kid smugglers.

"It's
going up," said Michael Lowrie, a public-affairs agent for the U.S. Border Patrol. "Not a whole lot, but more than we've seen in, well, pretty
much ever."

The Border Patrol does not
keep data on juvenile drug runners caught trying to sneak into Arizona. Customs
and Border Protection records show 130 minors were caught attempting to bring
drugs through entry ports from Sonora into Arizona during fiscal
2009, an 83% increase over the previous year.

Teresa
Small, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman in San Luis, said narcotics
organizations are recruiting American teens with claims that they won't face
major punishment if caught.

"Drug-trafficking
organizations lead them to believe they will not have a substantial
sentence," Small said. Prison terms are not uncommon for teen smugglers.

The
problem escalated last year to a point where federal and local authorities
created programs to warn Yuma County students about the dangers and
consequences of drug smuggling. The federal campaign includes a presentation by
border agents.

Judge
Maria Elena Cruz said she has noticed a surge of young smugglers who are
stunned when she orders them incarcerated.

Small
said most of the youthful offenders are Americans with family members in
Mexico. She said port officers generally refer suspects to local authorities
for prosecution under Arizona law, rather than to the federal justice system.

"One
thing for sure: They will get the hardest punishment possible," Small
said.

Still,
the cases pile up.

On June
24, Customs and Border Protection reported, a 16-year-old American boy was
arrested at the San Luis port of entry with cocaine taped to his leg.

"They
think they're going to get away with it or get a slap on the wrist,"
Lowrie

JUDICIAL WATCH.... get on their free emails

Obama Administration
Hostile to Illegal Immigration Enforcement

The Obama administration is once again undermining the enforcement of our
nation's immigration laws.

Last week I told you about the administration's attempts to
undermine 287(g), a highly successful federal program that trains
local law enforcement officers in illegal immigration enforcement techniques.
Well, this week, two stories hit the press that show just how far the
administration is willing to go to protect illegal alien criminals and punish
law enforcement officers who are simply doing their jobs.

First, as reported by The
Associated Press, the Obama administration is taking another
swipe at one of its favorite bogeymen, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio,
known as "America's toughest Sheriff" for his no-nonsense approach to
enforcing the law, including laws against illegal immigration. Here's the
scoop:

An Arizona sheriff known for aggressively cracking down on illegal
immigration has been stripped of some of his special power to enforce federal
immigration law, and he claims the Obama administration is taking away his
authority for political reasons.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose office faces racial profiling
allegations over crime and immigration sweeps in some heavily Latino areas of
metro Phoenix, said officials from Washington won't let him renew a deal that
let his deputies make federal immigration arrests.

Make no mistake. This move by the Obama administration is a strong message
to local police departments: "If you seek to enforce immigration laws, we
will strip you of your power." When taken in context with the
"reforms" to 287(g) that we discussed last week, it is clear the
administration is intent on not only undermining, but completely dismantling
the 287(g) program and any effort by local law enforcement officers to assist
the relatively small cadre of federal agents responsible for enforcing
immigration laws.

(By the way, you may recall Judicial
Watch Director of Research and Investigations Chris Farrell led a congressional
delegation to Arizona in July to assess the situation at the nation's southern
border. This included a tour of Sheriff Arpaio's "Tent City Jail."
Click here
for more information.)

The good news is Sheriff Arpaio won't back down and will continue to enforce
the law.

But the attack on 287(g) and the good sheriff is not the only tactic by this
administration to undermine the rule of law. The
Wall Street Journal reported this nugget earlier in the week:

The Obama administration is expected on Tuesday to unveil an outline of sweeping
changes for the nation's immigration-detention system, saying it will decide
whom to lock up and for how long based on the danger and flight risk posed by
detainees...

...Until now, the Obama administration has been reluctant to revise
detention standards, which were updated late in the administration of former
President George W. Bush. The immigration detention system expanded
dramatically during the Bush years as the government took a much tougher line
against illegal immigrants.

The Obama administration's reforms include the construction of new and
improved detention facilities, increased medical care, improved "custodial
conditions" and a new "classification system" for illegal alien
detainees. (The Obama administration believes holding illegal aliens who are
marked for deportation in jail cells is cruel and unusual punishment. One
proposed reform suggests putting them up in hotels and nursing homes instead!)

Leftists and their media allies have systematically been attacking the
current detention system for the last two years. They are seemingly opposed to
any detention system (hence, the Obama administration's emphasis on getting
alien criminals out of jail).

The fact is many of the illegal aliens being "detained" in jails
are simply awaiting deportation after having served time for other crimes,
including crimes of violence. The federal government reimburses localities for
jailing these bad guys. Certainly makes sense from a public safety perspective.

Of course, the whole idea of the Obama plan is to bring the entire system
under federal control, which apparently means more money and less enforcement.
Signs point to expensive "Club Feds" for illegal alien criminals.

So the twofer from the Obama administration this week is this: don't arrest
illegal aliens and coddle them if they are arrested.

And so the illegal alien crisis will continue.

*

From the Los Angeles Times

Opinion

Mexico's bloody drug war

The drug violence in Mexico rivals death tolls in Iraq.

By David Danelo

December 10, 2008

On Nov. 3, the day before Americans elected Barack Obama president, drug cartel
henchmen murdered 58 people in Mexico. It was the highest number killed in one
day since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006. By
comparison, on average 26 people -- Americans and Iraqis combined -- died daily
in Iraq in 2008. Mexico's casualty list on Nov. 3 included a man beheaded in
Ciudad Juarez whose bloody corpse was suspended along an overpass for hours. No
one had the courage to remove the body until dark.

The death toll from terrorist attacks in Mumbai two weeks ago, although
horrible, approaches the average weekly body count in Mexico's war. Three weeks
ago in Juarez, which is just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas,
telephone messages and banners threatened teachers that if they failed to pay
protection money to cartels, their students would suffer brutal consequences.
Local authorities responded by assigning 350 teenage police cadets to the
city's 900 schools. If organized criminals wish to extract tribute from
teachers, businessmen, tourists or anyone else, there is nothing the Mexican
government can do to stop them. For its part, the United States has become numb
to this norm.

As part of my ongoing research into border issues, I have visited Juarez six
times over the last two years. Each time I return, I see a populace under
greater siege. Residents possess a mentality that increasingly resembles the
one I witnessed as a Marine officer in Baghdad, Fallouja and Ramadi.

"The police are nothing," a forlorn cab driver told me in September.
"They cannot protect anyone. We can go nowhere else. We live in
fear."

An official in El Paso estimated that up to 100,000 dual U.S.-Mexican citizens,
mostly upper middle class, have fled north from Juarez to his city this year.
Only those lacking means to escape remain.

At the same time, with the U.S. economy in free fall, many illegal immigrants
are returning south. So illegal immigration -- the only border issue that seems
to stir the masses -- made no splash in this year's elections. Mexico's chaos
never surfaced as a topic in either the foreign or domestic policy presidential
debates.

Despite the gravity of the crisis, our closest neighbor has fallen off our
political radar. Heaven help you if you bring up the border violence at a
Washington dinner party. Nobody -- Republican or Democrat -- wants to approach
this thorny discussion.

Mexico, our second-largest trading partner, is a fragmenting state that may
spiral toward failure as the recession and drug violence worsen. Remittances to
Mexico from immigrant labor have fallen almost 20% in 2008. Following oil,
tourism and remittances, drugs are the leading income stream in the Mexican
economy.

While the bottom is dropping out of the oil and tourism markets, the American
street price of every narcotic has skyrocketed, in part because of recent drug
interdiction successes along the U.S. border.

Unfortunately, this toxic economic cocktail also stuffs the cartels' coffers.
Substitute tribal clans for drug cartels, and Mexico starts to look
disturbingly similar to Afghanistan, whose economy is fueled by the
heroin-based poppy trade.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Obama's pick for Homeland Security director, has
argued for permanently stationing National Guard troops along the border. That
response alone will do little to assuage American border citizens. To them,
talk of "violence bleeding over" is political pabulum while they
watch their southern neighbors bleed.

If Napolitano wishes to stabilize the border, she will have to persuade the
Pentagon and the State Department to take a greater interest in Mexico. Despite
Calderon's commendable efforts to fight both the cartels and police corruption,
this struggle shows no signs of slowing. When 45,000 federal troops are
outgunned and outspent by opponents of uncertain but robust size, the state's
legitimacy quickly deteriorates.

The Mexican state has not faced this grave a challenge to its authority since
the Mexican revolution nearly a century ago.

If you want to see what Mexico will look
like if this pattern continues, visit a border city like Tijuana, where nine
beheaded bodies were discovered in plastic bags 10 days ago. Inhale the
stench of decay. Inspect the fear on the faces. And then ask yourself how the
United States is prepared to respond as Mexico's crisis increasingly becomes
our own.

David J. Danelo is the author of "The Border: Exploring the U.S.-Mexican
Divide" and "Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in
Iraq."